Hi does anyone know if I need to buy the car with wifi-hotspot option in my bmw if I want to connect my iPhone over wifi to the car?
I don’t want internet just to be connected to the iDrive
It’s not clear for me if this is a default option now or I need to install the $400 option
Thanks
This is a good question - I’m not 100% on this, but I don’t think you need the $400 wifi option. I can confirm that while my car does have wifi and wireless charging, I don’t have an active paid subscription for internet, and can connect to carplay wirelessly.
I’m pretty certain wireless carplay works through bluetooth and not wifi. So you shouldn’t require the $400 wifi option, just the $300 carplay one (or cheaper via aftermarket).
CarPlay works through WiFi last I knew.
That was my initial thought but I’m pretty sure you can equip or install carplay without buying the wifi package with BMW. AFAIK BMW doesn’t do wired carplay. I could be totally wrong, though.
CarPlay works in some really depressing classes of rental cars, which couldn’t possibly have hot spots built in.
Carplay will work, but the question is if it is going to work over wifi without the wifi-hotspot option
I don’t want to pay $400 for that
But connecting my iPhone with usb cable ever-time I get in the car is not the best either
Yes, you don’t need the wifi hotspot option to use CarPlay wirelessly.
Oh, I see what you mean.
I’m interested in this discussion as well. Still getting to know my car too.
On its face the idea of an onboard hot spot is kind of silly to me.
Who doesn’t have a data plan on their phone?
And if someone wants to use a tablet or other device that’s WiFi-only, they can just tether to my phone.
Thank you!!
I am impressed how active and fast this community is!
Technically the car already has a modem built-in and is capable of a WiFi connection, the WiFi hotspot is just a pointless option that lets users access the cellular connection in the car.
Maybe it’s useful for parents with kids that are using iPads or professionals being chauffeured, but who doesn’t have a smartphone?
I am allergic to almost anything that requires a subscription, so that’s my bias.
My only mobile phone is work-issued, and my spouse’s phone is part of a friend’s 10-line grandfathered T-Mobile plan, and our share is under $19 a month including international service.
We’re probably on a similar, if not the same, grandfathered plan. My spouse hates not having unlimited LTE data, though.
Yeah…wired…
Data is unlimited, but I think it gets throttled at some point.
Oops, that’s what I meant. As soon as it gets throttled, it’s brutal speed. I’ve never hit the cap but some people can’t close the gram…
We never hit the cap in the US, but we often do when we travel.
The data speed when throttled is perfectly fine in some countries, awful in others.
In Hong Kong and the UK we knew we were throttled (received a usage notification) but it was barely noticeable.
I am told that the throttled speed made the service almost unusable in Turkey and France.
The BMW hotspot is $20/month and gets throttled at 22GB too. Totally pointless for most people.
It’s really bad in mainland China as well. In fact, in most countries it isn’t that great (I can only speak to maybe 30 or 40 but I figure it’s a decent sample size). But it has saved me more times than I can count overseas. I’ve thought about switching a dozen times but it’s so darn cheap and while often times slow, generally pretty reliable.
Yeah, I won’t even pay $5/mo for Sirius XM (once trial ends), much less pay $20 for internet while driving (where you hardly are even on your phone to begin with).
The idea is probably that other passengers can use it, which I guess might be worthwhile for a large family with an SUV if the kids don’t have smartphones.